Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品), the world’s second-largest chip tester and packager, yesterday said revenue in the fourth quarter would decline by between 4 percent and 8 percent from NT$16.33 billion (US$542 million) in the third quarter on uncertainty over the global economy and the floods in Thailand that have impacted production of some PC parts.
“There will certainly be an impact from the floods in Thailand, which produces some consumer electronics parts, such as disk drives,” SPIL chairman Bough Lin (林文伯) told investors.
Chip suppliers for disk drives may cut orders in view of the production disruption in Thailand, resulting in slower momentum for chip testers and packagers, he said.
The economic jitters in the eurozone and the US also remain a drag on business momentum, he added.
Samsung Securities (Asia) Ltd analyst Warren Lau (劉華仁) said in a client note on Monday that he forecast that SPIL’s revenue would decline 5 percent quarter-on-quarter in the fourth quarter as customers remain cautious.
“Some of its PC customers may be impacted by the flooding in Thailand. This could be offset by the strength at its fabless wireless clients,” Lau wrote in the note.
Despite a lower revenue forecast for the fourth quarter, overall the semiconductor industry would post mid-single-digit growth next year, Lin said.
That is because consumer spending has not dropped as drastically as expected and volumes of consumer electronics products are expected to grow steadily next year, he said.
“Customers are putting their orders on hold and they will release orders if sales of some star products, such as smartphones and tablets, stand out,” he said.
SPIL reported earnings of NT$1.47 billion, or earning per share of NT$0.47, in the third quarter, down 1.2 percent from last year, but up 30.8 percent from the second quarter. That was compared with Samsung Securities’ forecast of NT$1.55 billion in earnings, or earning per share of NT$0.50.
The company’s revenue in the quarter was NT$16.33 billion, up 0.1 percent year-on-year and 10.8 percent quarter-on-quarter. Gross margin was 15.2 percent in the quarter, up 1 percent year-on-year, but down 0.4 percent quarter-on-quarter.
For the first three quarters, earnings dropped 18.8 percent from last year to NT$3.67 billion, or earnings per share of NT$1.17, while revenue declined 5.9 percent to NT$45.53 billion and gross margin fell 0.4 percent to 15.3 percent.
SPIL said utilization rates would drop to 90 percent for wirebonding packaging in the fourth quarter, from 95 percent in the third quarter, while the utilization rate of flip-chip ball-grid-array packaging is also likely to drop to 90 percent from 95 percent. IC logic testing equipment will also likely fall to 70 percent from 75 percent.
The company has earmarked NT$3.05 billion for capital spending in the fourth quarter, bringing the total to NT$11.5 billion for the whole year, up from its earlier estimate of NT$10 billion.
SPIL attributed the rise to its efforts to retire older wirebonders and the migration to copper wirebonders from gold wirebonders.
SPIL shares closed up 1.74 percent to NT$32.2 yesterday before the investors’ conference.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by